Effects of the COVID‐19 lockdown on glycaemic control in subjects with type 2 diabetes: the glycalock study

Abstract

Aims The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) forced several countries to adopt measures of lockdown constraining people at home, with a relevant impact on those with chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of lockdown on glycaemic control in T2D. Material & Methods in this observational multicenter retrospective study conducted in the Lazio region, Italy, we compared the differences in the HbA1c levels of 141 subjects with T2D exposed to lockdown with 123 matched‐controls with T2D who attended the study centres one year before. Basal data were collected from December 9th to March 9th and follow‐up data from June 3rd to July 10th in 2020 for the lockdown group and during the same time frames in 2019 for the control groups. Changes of HbA1c (ΔHbA1c) and BMI (ΔBMI) during lockdown were compared among patients with different psychological health, as evaluated by tertiles of Psychological General Well‐Being Index score (PGWBS) . Results No difference in ΔHbA1c was found between the lockdown and the control groups [lockdown group −0.1(−0.5 − +0.3)% Vs control group −0.1(−0.4 − +0.2)%, p = 0.482]. No difference was also found in ΔBMI(p = 0.316) and ΔGlucose (p = 0.538). In the lockdown group, subjects with worse PGWBS showed a worsening of HbA1c (p = 0.041 for trend among PGWBS tertiles) and BMI (p = 0.022). Conclusions Covid‐19 lockdown did not significantly impact on glycemic control in people with T2D. People with poor psychological well‐being may especially suffer from restrictions due to lockdown, worsening their glycaemic control. These findings may aid health care providers in diabetes management at the end of the second Covid‐19 wave.